Lamination general description

At the end of Section 5.4.2.5, the statement was made that most continuous, unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites are used to produce layers that are subsequently assembled to form laminate composites. In this section, we expound upon this statement by examining the mechanics of laminate composites, first through a generalized description of their mechanics, then with some specific stress-strain behavior. 

In this chapter, the transition from voluminous to areal structures, as already prepared in Section 4.4, will be implemented with special regard to laminated composites and adaptive capabilities making use of the piezoelectric effect for actuation as well as sensing. Therefore, a comprehensive constitutive description is developed and appropriate kinematic relations are specified. Afterwards, possibilities of different complexity for the reduction to a less general description are considered in view of specialized application cases. 

Fabrication of composites can be divided into three general approaches fibrous, structural materials including laminates, and particulates. Following is a brief description of each. 

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